andiegarcia

HI! We FINALLY heard back from Shantal. She claims that she's been having "trouble with her emails," which is why she hasn't received any of my emails. So frustrating! Then when I asked for a detailed list of our expenses, she sent us the wrong wedding expense sheet. It has been one problem after another. I'm nervous about the execution and service on the day of the wedding. Tammy, is there someone I can talk to when I get to the resort on Thursday about the terrible service/communication we've had since working with Shantal?

Did anyone tip the servers/staff other than the WC at Dreams? Just curious as to how much we should bring for tips. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

We went with Dennis Berti (www.dennisberti.com). He is super talented, just check out the blog section on his website for pics. Our wedding is this Saturday, so we'll keep you all posted on his service once we get back!

We booked Dennis Berti for our photographer for our 6/14/14 wedding. A lot less than Alec & T with similar quality. Check out his website.. DennisBerti.com!! We'll share his work as soon as we have pics available!

I was having some luck with Magda planning our wedding and even had a positive experience getting to meet her at the resort for a site visit in November. Its sad to hear the overwhelming amount of negative feedback from the WC's at dreams. Unfortunately, Magda has moved on and she has moved me to a new WC - Shantal. Communication with Shantal has been AWFUL! I'm two weeks out from my wedding and have questions that haven't been answered. I've even been CC'ing David Ocete, one of her managers and still haven't had a response to an email I sent last week. VERY DISSAPOINTED! I will certainly let everyone at the resort know this has not been easy, especially in the final weeks of wedding planning. Anyone else working with Shantal having the same experience?

We purchased our tumbler cups from Dollar Tree (via dollartree.com). They are perfect, nothing fancy for something that will probably be used once for our Mexico wedding but very affordable. Then we found a vendor on Etsy to do a vinyl label for our cups. The cups were $24 (for 24 cups) and the decal was $30. We have a small guest list for our wedding so it was easy for us to add into our welcome bags at an affordable cost. I hope this helps someone!

I just came across Dennis Berti (www.DenisBerti.com).. his photography is AMAZING and not as expensive as Alec & T. I'm sorry, there is no way in the world I can justify paying $5000+ for a photog who's pictures look like they're fake cause they edit too much. I understand this will only happen once but I still need to be able to budget here and there. I received a quote for $3500 for 6 hours with Dennis and Chio, his photographer girlfriend, and booked them for our wedding. Their style is unique and they don't do posed pictures. They believe in capturing real/raw moments throughout your special day - I love it! This is just my opinion, but hopefully this helps some brides out there!

Just wanted to update everyone.. I requested a quote this week for 2014 Wedding Photography and this their answer straight from their email response.. "Saturdays we do have a 5 hour min $4700" It sounds like they're a bit cheaper during the week/Sundays, but I'm not sure. Unfortunately I did not want to change the date - I already printed Save The Dates - so we will not be using them since they are way out of our budget. We did however decide to go with Dennis Berti and I am very excited! They were able to offer us 6 hours for $3500. But they're style is very unique. No posed pictures, which I don't usually like taking anyways.. so fake/forced! I'll be sure to post our wedding pics from Dennis Berti when they come in!

Has anyone used the Photographers/Videographers that are included with the Dreams packages? I would like to stick with everything that is included in our package (to keep wedding costs down), but I don't have any names or photo galleries to get an idea of what we're going to be experiencing. I would hate to have to use another vendor and let this part of our package go to waste, so I am hoping that someone has had some recent experiences/photos they would be willing to share. Please help! I am really panicking about having good photos of the big day. Thanks!! -Andie

Hey Lauren, We were thinking of having our guests shuttled over to the downtown/squid row area for one night as a "Welcome" party. Since we will probably be having guests stay at different resorts, this is probably the most efficient (budget-wise) for me and my fi. There's a small bar called Happy Endings that has 3 large beer pong tables, when I went to Cabo on vacation last November, we had a blast and the parents were just sitting there laughing at us. We plan to head there early and try to save a couple of table tops and beer pong tables for our guests for a welcome party. Then maybe to Jungle Bar (Next to Cabo Wabo, and sooo much cheaper for drinks) afterwards to go listen to the live band and do a little dancing!

Lauren, please keep us posted on your wedding planning. I recently booked my wedding for Dreams in Cabo for 6/14/14. I would really appreciate the updates on your vendors, as I will be going through the same process as you (we also chose the Ultimate package). I haven't exactly started to dive into the vendors - i feel like it's too early, but do you ladies think I need to get started on the soon? Any help would be appreciated! Congrats to you Lauren and Happy Planning!

Where did you get the custom rubber stamp? I love the idea and were interested in purchasing a stamp for ourselves. Thank you!

This will be super easy to plan. dont stress about it. you can go through a resort and look at the different packages they offer or rent a villa and have a bit more privacy (but leaves more for you to plan rather than having a wedding coordinator from the resort help you). what i did, was look through some of the forums on this site and see what people are saying about the different resorts and often times people are nice enough to include links to pictures to help. I wish i could be more helpful, but i really feel like you will be able to have no problems planning this out especially with how intimate it seems it will be. happy planning!

Thank you sooooo much for the amazing photos! This has truly helped me see the difference between the two reception areas that are available.

Hi Ladies, Can anyone tell me about the Oceana Pool Terrace or the Cascada Pool Terrace. I'm having a hard time deciding between the two and the two locations look so similar in the pictures. Which one is more private? Does anyone have any pictures they can share?? I just secured June 14th, 2014 for my wedding date! woo hoo!! Congrats to all the brides-to-be!